


Recitation

by gijane7702



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, FLUFFYFLUFF, Voyager Talent Night, frommeshockingiknow, ohlookpostendgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22487806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gijane7702/pseuds/gijane7702
Summary: It's another Talent Night that Chakotay has to avoid...or does he?
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Comments: 16
Kudos: 55
Collections: Voyager Talent Night Extravaganza





	Recitation

Starfleet Academy

Ft Baker, California, Earth

10 July 2379

Chakotay paused in his work. Working out a crick out of his neck, his eye caught the display on the opposite wall and he grimaced when he noticed the date. A date that had haunted him for five years now. A day of torture he could that almost completely lay at the feet of Neelix... though Kathryn was involved as well: Talent Day. 

Well, technically, Talent Night.

He was hoping it would be forgotten, banking on the fact they were no longer on _Voyager_ , stuck in the Delta Quadrant. They were home. The crew was scattered. Neelix was on New Talax and Kathryn was so busy at Starfleet Command that they barely saw each other despite living together. 

Chakotay had managed the rest of their journey to avoid Talent Night. Twice, in the fourth year and the seventh, he had assigned himself to Beta Shift. The show had been cancelled during their fifth year due to an emergency and during the sixth cut short for another before his turn had come up. 

Kathryn was annoyed every time he managed to avoid it... probably because she was trying to as well. B’Elanna had recruited her for assistance in the fourth year. The engineer had taken his suggestion of the phaser idea and had shot an apple off Kathryn’s head. Tom had video commed it to the Bridge for him and Harry on the down low. Chakotay had been in trouble with Kathryn for days after that one.

Then Harry had volunteered her to assist Naomi Wildman with her magic act during the last year. She had borne it stoically, as a good captain should. Harry had reported to him that Seven had actually asked her, out of earshot of Naomi, if she was grinding her teeth (she had been). Chakotay knew it was in annoyance at him… and her situation. A year later, Harry and Seven still claimed that the week of scrubbing plasma coils with old fashioned toothbrushes had been totally worth it.

His communication console bleeping snapped him out of his reverie. He was supposed to be planning the autumn semester Advanced Tactics for the seniors and the first classes of his Delta Quadrant Social Sciences courses for all cadets, not daydreaming (and not really about Kathryn). Activating his monitor, Chakotay grinned when her face appeared.

“I’m glad to see you too, sweetheart,” Kathryn greeted him, smiling in response to his dimples. He winked at her. “Though you might not like what I have to remind you about… Today is-”

“Talent Night,” he said bluntly. When she made a face, he laughed. “I was _just_ thinking about it… and you."

“Smart move... adding me," Kathryn told him. When Chakotay laughed again, she added, “I was thinking about how you managed to keep avoiding a performance. Unlike me.” Kathryn rolled her eyes and took a sip of coffee.

"Circumvention was my talent, baby,” he said cheekily.

She choked on her coffee, eventually spitting out a mouthful. 

Chakotay lost it, laughing when her aide came running into her office to see if she was alright. When Decan caught sight of him on her monitor he excused himself and walked away. After Kathryn regained her breath, she said, “I think you just took ten years off his life!"

"Eh… he’s Vulcan. He can afford it,” he told her, making her laugh again. He grinned at her as she wiped away the tears of mirth running down her face. “I love watching you laugh."

“You’ve said you love watching me sleep also…”

“I love everything about you.” He caught his breath at the sensuous look that crossed her face. 

“I love you too,” Kathryn whispered, touching the monitor. He touched his back. They stared at each other for a few heartbeats before she said, “I’m actually free tonight even though it's Friday, so I’ll be home around six.”

"I’ll be waiting, baby.”

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Janeway/Chakotay bungalow

Sausalito, California, Earth

"I’m home!” Kathryn called as she shut their front door. “Mmmmmm… what are you making? Smells delicious!”

Chakotay chuckled as she came around the corner from the entrance into the kitchen, sniffing the air hopefully. “Vegetable lasagna, salad, and fresh bread from the market,” he told her as she unbuckled her admiral’s belt and took off her jacket, tossing them through the doorway into the laundry room. “Should be ready in about half an hour.” 

Pecking him on his lips, she told him, “I’m going to take a quick shower and slip into something more… _comfortable_.” 

He cocked an eyebrow at her innuendo. “That little black nightie, perhaps?” 

Kathryn slid her hand up his chest, stopping over his heart. “You have been a good boy lately…”

Chakotay dropped his knife and grabbed her waist. Leaning down, he kissed her passionately, then growled into her ear, “Put something over the nightie or we’ll never eat.” 

“Come to think of it… I’m not really that hungry,” she purred, licking his ear and smirking as he groaned.

“I was planning on Talent Night after dinner…” he ground out, then added, “And I don’t mean in the bedroom…” when he saw the look on her face.

She looked blankly at him for a moment, then grinned. “An actual performance? Just for me?” 

Chakotay kissed her nose. “Yes,” he told her, grinning when she squealed. “Now go shower and change. See you in thirty.”

He chuckled as she shimmied away from him, swinging her hips seductively. As she turned the corner towards their bedroom, he checked on the lasagna then set about laying the table. Twenty minutes later, he could smell her before she came into sight. 

He’d just set the salad down and was reaching for the dressing when Kathryn wrapped her arms around him from behind. He inhaled her scent of ylang ylang. It had driven him crazy on _Voyager_ and continued to do so now.

“Thank goodness you can cook,” she mumbled into his back, hugging him. He chuckled. “I’m starving!"

“Dinner will be served in five minutes. Eat your salad now, Kathryn,” he told her as he pulled out her chair. Reaching for her hands, he twirled her around his body and into her seat. As he served her, he sniffed then licked her neck, telling her she smelled and tasted delicious. She giggled at his antics, then attacked her salad and bread.

Chakotay was pleased she had an appetite, considering she had survived practically on caffeine alone while they were in the Delta Quadrant. The first few months home had been extremely rough, but they were both now finding their footings, both professionally and personally.

When the timer sounded, he shut off the oven and removed the lasagna, smirking at Kathryn who was sniffing the air again.

After she sent him a look that plainly said she’d have him thrown in the brig if he didn’t hurry, he quickly plated up two servings. Setting hers down in front of her, he found it amusing that he had to warn a Starfleet vice admiral that it was steaming hot and not to eat it right away. Said vice admiral stuck her tongue out at him, then grimaced when she took a bite anyways and promptly burned her tongue. 

"I told you it was hot, sweetheart,” Chakotay chuckled as she gulped down her wine. Kathryn made a face at him, but impatiently waited for her food to cool. After they were done eating, they quickly tidied up. He told her to go wait in the living room and finish up his preparations, while he prepared for his performance. 

When she got to the living room, he heard her gasp of surprise. Throughout the room he had set candles; all she had to do was light them. With them lit and the sun setting, they would have a gorgeous view of the San Francisco Bay and, beyond it, the city. “I love when you’re romantic,” Kathryn called to him. 

Chakotay grinned to himself. If she thought candles were romantic… He entered the living room, book in hand, pausing at the doorway. She was standing in front of the slider doors to the deck, silhouetted, her body clearly visible under her light sweater and leggings because of the lighting. He sucked in a breath as Kathryn turned her head slightly and smiled at him. Dropping his book on the couch, he joined her at the doors.

"Vixen,” he murmured into her ear. Sniffing her, he added, “You knew all those years that I was driven to distraction by you and your scent.” 

She smiled coyly. “Did I?” Backing up into him, she rubbed up against him. “I had to smell you too, you know… sandalwood and cinnamon. Yum. But it was the talcum powder that always sent me over the edge.”

“Of course… the practical thing I use, you love.” Chakotay joined her laughter. “Now, Admiral, you’ve been waiting five years for my Talent Night performance. Would you care to sit on the couch while I recite for you?” 

Kathryn bounced to the couch and plopped down on it. Sitting down next to her, he picked up his book. She put her face in her hands and looked at him expectantly. He cleared his throat, then announced, “Tonight I shall be reading some selected works of Pablo Neruda."

She sucked in a breath, and he knew it was because she knew how sensual Neruda’s works were. “I’m so glad you never did this on _Voyager._ Imagine all the ensigns following you around afterward… ‘Oh, Commander, could you assist me with…’ fill in the blank,” she said in a mock flustery voice.

Chakotay chuckled, knowing she was correct, then flipped to the first poem. “The first one is called ‘Absence’.” He began reciting: 

_“I_ _have scarcely left you_

_When you go in me, crystalline,_

_Or trembling,_

_Or uneasy, wounded by me_

_Or overwhelmed with love, as_

_when your eyes_

_Close upon the gift of life_

_That without cease I give you._

_My love,_

_We have found each other_

_Thirsty and we have_

_Drunk up all the water and the_

_Blood,_

_We found each other_

_Hungry_

_And we bit each other_

_As fire bites,_

_Leaving wounds in us._

_But wait for me,_

_Keep for me your sweetness._

_I will give you too_

_A rose.”_

At the end of his recitation Chakotay could tell Kathryn was aroused. He smiled to himself, then started ‘In You The Earth’:

_“Little_

_rose,_

_roselet,_

_at times,_

_tiny and naked,_

_it seems_

_as though you would fit_

_in one of my hands,_

_as though I’ll clasp you like this_

_and carry you to my mouth,_

_but_

_suddenly_

_my feet touch your feet and my mouth your lips:_

_you have grown,_

_your shoulders rise like two hills,_

_your breasts wander over my breast,_

_my arm scarcely manages to encircle the thin_

_new-moon line of your waist:_

_in love you loosened yourself like sea water:_

_I can scarcely measure the sky’s most spacious eyes_

_and I lean down to your mouth to kiss the earth.”_

He paused after the last stanza and looked up at her. Apparently that’s what she had been waiting for, because she pounced on him. Knocking the book aside, Kathryn mumbled “Performance over” before she captured his lips. Gently nipping his upper lip so he’d open his mouth, she kissed him passionately. 

Chakotay grasped her hips as she settled in, straddling him, knowing from experience she'd slide off in her eagerness. They kissed a long while before he tenderly ended the embrace. “Kathryn,” he whispered. 

“Mmmmmm,” she complained. “More kisses."

“In a moment,” he told her, dodging her lips. “I have to ask you something.”

“What?” She grouched. “You can’t read poetry like that and not expect sex-”

“-Marry me,” he cut her off with.

Kathryn reared back to look at him fully. “Did you just…? Oh… I…”

“Sorry,” he muttered. “I wasn’t planning on it tonight-”

“Yes!” she yelled, cutting him off. “A thousand yeses! Yes!” 

“Really?” He grinned. When she nodded her affirmation, he kissed her hard. “I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart,” she replied, hugging him tight.

Chakotay wrapped his arms around her and they stayed locked in their embrace, looking out over the Bay, until the sun set. By the time it had grown completely dark, Kathryn was half asleep against him. He gathered her up in his arms and stood, blew out all the candles, then headed towards their bedroom. She murmured an advance to him, but he just whispered to her to sleep as he removed her clothes, grinning as he revealed the black nightie underneath. After removing everything but his underwear, he slid into bed next to her and quickly followed her into slumber.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

In the morning, Kathryn woke to a note that Chakotay had stepped out for a coffee and bagel run. She caught sight of the ring on her finger that he had slid on sometime during the night, grinning as it sparked in the sunlight. She wasn’t one for jewelry usually, but this time it was special.

After all that time together but apart, they would finally be one.

**Author's Note:**

> ‘Absence’ and ‘In You The Earth’ are by Pablo Neruda
> 
> Hey look post-Endgame fluff from me...shocking, I know ;)
> 
> jemabean gave me the idea for Chakotay to recite it for Kathryn after we heard the clip of Robert Beltran reciting it ***yum***
> 
> Thanks to coffeeblack75 for the beta


End file.
